FEATURED NEWS STORY

Influential UO Anthropology Professor Dies

Philip D. Young, 76, died June 30, 2013 in Cottage Grove, Oregon. He was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 18, 1936 to Donald and Jean (Ftacek) Young. He served in the Army in The Panama Canal Zone. Phil was Professor Emeritus in Anthropology at the University of Oregon, Chair of the Department of Anthropology (1985-1989) and Director of International Studies (1992-1995). He authored and co-edited 6 books and wrote numerous scholarly articles published in English and Spanish. He continued to be deeply committed to his work until his recent passing. He was a noted cultural anthropologist, a Latin Americanist specializing in socioeconomic change, adaptation among small farmers, and language and culture relationships. He had over 40 years of experience as a researcher, teacher, consultant, field-training director, project evaluator, and administrator. His bond with Ngäbe friends and family always drew him back to Panama. He leaves a legacy in his scholarship, his students and colleagues and the many people he touched throughout the world. To those close to him, Phil will be remembered for his wit and sense of humor, his devilish smile, and his collection of artisan frogs. His wife, Kathleen Black, will scatter his ashes at the Oregon coast, where they spent many happy times together. He is survived by Kathy, sons John and Andy, daughters Aixa, Juanita, Tanya, grandchildren and great-grandchildren all of Eugene, and brother Jerry Young, who lives in California.

Congratulations to Department of Anthropology PhD candidate Iván Sandoval Cervantes, who was awarded the prestigious Jane Grant Dissertation Fellowship. His dissertation topic is “The Intersections of Transnational and Internal Indigenous Migration: Gender, Kinship, and Care.” Sandoval’s project is based on more than twenty months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork with the community of Zegache in Zegache, Oaxaca; Mexico City; and Salem, Oregon.

A book authored by Professor Lynn Stephen, director, UO Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies, has been named the recipient of the 2015 Delmos Jones and Jagna Scharff Memorial Book Award from the Society for the Anthropology of North America. We are the Face of Oaxaca: Testimony and Social Movements (Duke University Press, October 2013) tells the story of a massive uprising against the Mexican state of Oaxaca, which began with the emergence of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) in June 2006. Click here to read more.

Congratulations to Anthropology graduate student Matt “Nappy” Napolitano, for winning this year’s
“People’s Choice Award” at this year’s Graduate Research Forum for his
poster entitled “Before the Clock Runs Out: Archaeology In the Face of
Erosion on St. Catherines Island, Georgia, USA”.Click here for the full article.

Prof. Silverman was formally recognized at the annual meeting of the American Folklore Society in Santa Fe, Nov. 5-8, 2014. The Fellows is an honorary body that recognizes outstanding achievement in folklore scholarship. A learned organization founded in 1888 Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Society is an association of people who study and communicate knowledge about folklore throughout the world. Click here to read more in an article from Around the O.

Congratulations to Anthropology major Erica Ledesma, who won the 2015 Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Student Essay Award for her paper titled, “Mayan Women in the Context of War: Challenged and Transformed Traditional Gender Roles”
Written for LAS 399: Post Study Abroad and instructed by Professor Lynn Stephen. She received the award, presented by Interim President Scott Coltrane, on January 21st at the MLK Luncheon, which was sponsored by the Office for Equity and Inclusions.

Anthropology Doctoral Student Gennie Nguyen is the recipient of the Oregon Heritage Fellowship for her project “Revisiting Vanport and Albina’s Multicultural History from 1940-1990,” a project that is related to her on-going fieldwork for her doctoral dissertation.

Dr. Jason Younker, assistant vice president and advisor to the president on sovereignty and government-to-goverment relations at the UO, is the newest recipient of the Ely S. Parker award by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES). To read the article, click here:

New article “Fitness Costs of Warfare for Women,” by Michelle Scalise Sugiyama, recently published by the journal Human Nature. Article features fascinating research on how women act during periods of conflict to survive and protect their offspring.

Article by Doctoral Student Melissa Liebert, “Implications of market integration for cardiovascular and metabolic health among an indigenous Amazonian Ecuadorian population,” has been chosen to receive the Nick Norgan award for the best paper published in Annals of Human Biology during 2013. Co-authors include J. Josh Snodgrass, Felicia C. Madimenos, Tara J. Cepon, Aaron D. Blackwell, and Lawrence S. Sugiyama (Ann Hum Biol., 2013, May; 40(3): 228-242). The criteria for selection of the paper included judgment on the following areas: (1) Originality of work and potential to make impact in the field; (2) Importance of the research question; (3) Quality/sophistication of data analysis; (4) Interpretation of the results; and (5) Quality of Presentation.